John Glaser

October 2, 2013

The Iranian commander of the Cyber War Headquarters has been assassinated by two unidentified assailants on motorbikes, in a mysterious killing that bears the hallmarks of previous assassinations of Iranian officials that most experts suspect Israel of carrying out. The Telegraph: Mojtaba Ahmadi, who served as commander of the Cyber War Headquarters, was found dead in […]

John Glaser

October 2, 2013

The NSA admitted in Congressional testimony this week that they were deliberately “collect[ing] data about ordinary Americans’ cellphone locations,” in a test program that lasted from 2010 to 2011. Collecting data about the cellphone locations of ordinary Americans. The NSA targeted ordinary Americans. This is quite a departure from what the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has […]

John Glaser

October 2, 2013

The U.S. has been declaring victory in Colombia for several years now, citing successes in clamping down on the drug trade. But it’s clear the international drug war has failed miserably. The Clinton administration launched a foreign policy initiative to choke off the export of cocaine from Colombia by encouraging the Colombian government to militarize […]

Edward Snowden

October 2, 2013

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden's words were entered as testimony at the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee in Brussels on Monday. Jesselyn Radack of the US Government Accountability Project (GAP) and a former whistleblower and ethics adviser to the US Department of Justice, read Snowden's statement into the record. Ms. Radack came to prominence after she […]

Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity

October 2, 2013

World attention has moved to the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons, but the evidence on the Aug. 21 attack near Damascus remains hidden and in dispute, causing a group of former U.S. intelligence professionals to ask Moscow and Washington to present what they have. Memorandum to: Secretary of State John Kerry and Foreign Minister Sergey […]

Ramzy Baroud

October 2, 2013

Egypt’s new ruler, General Abdul Fatah al-Sisi, may not realize that the bond between Egypt, Palestine and especially Gaza is beyond historic, and simply cannot be severed with border restrictions, albeit they have caused immense suffering for many Palestinians. Gaza is being ‘collectively punished’, and is now facing economic hardship and a severe fuel shortage […]

John Glaser

October 1, 2013

Ask any policymaker in the White House or Congress, what’s more important than human rights? Their response: “Our government, of course.” The Obama administration yesterday issued blanket waivers exempting three countries from a federal law banning U.S. military aid to countries that use child soldiers. Think Progress: The Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008 (CPSA) is meant […]

John Glaser

October 1, 2013

In the coming weeks and months, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to “dedicate himself to derailing any prospect for a diplomatic breakthrough” between the United States and Iran. And the reasons have nothing at all to do with Iran’s nuclear program. Instead, Israeli intransigence on the Iran issue is motivated by two factors: […]

Jason Ditz

September 30, 2013

Justifying massive military expenditures and a program of universal conscription isn’t easy in a time of peace, but the Swiss military has managed to keep it up even though they don’t face any conceivable military threats, and indeed haven’t faced any in decades. But being the head of a conscript military with no enemies is […]

John Glaser

September 30, 2013

According to government officials speaking to the New York Times, traditional mainstream newspaper reporting of a single incident last month caused more damage to national security than everything Edward Snowden leaked. As the nation’s spy agencies assess the fallout from disclosures about their surveillance programs, some government analysts and senior officials have made a startling […]